THE GIFT IN YOU CENTRE

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Do you have thoughts that you feel might be damaging your health?

Dr. Antonio Jimenez wrote an article for The Cancer Tutor...

"Doctor, are you saying that emotions can cause cancer?" In more than 25 years of serving cancer patients and seeing miracles unfold, I have been asked this incredulous question more times than I can possibly count. My unwavering answer has always been, "YES, they can."

I understand why this concept leaves so many of us wide-eyed. Proponents of evidence-based medicine have their own perspective of what counts as evidence, and, somehow, emotions don't make it on their list.

Yet, we all perceptibly know that our thoughts become things. That they can become the difference between action and inaction, success and failure, health and disease, or even life and death. They can certainly drive change.

But, would it be a stretch to think that our thoughts could cause cancer or disease? And even if they could, how would we measure their impact, and, more importantly, undo their damage?

What can 'The Gift in You Centre' do for you?

We endeavour to assist you to find the issues or trauma that may have caused your ill-health, because identifying the issues will help toward withdrawing the symptoms.

People too often displace their issues and problems from their mind, even try to numb or silence them by comfort eating, isolation, or drowning themselves in alcohol, or drugs, or unhealthy activities and stimulants.

However, there comes a time when one needs to take a look on the inside for themselves. Most health conditions that we suffer are a signpost about the state of our mind and thoughts.

When the conflict can be identified, a self-healing process can then begin, and lead a person on their way recovery.

Do you suffer with ill-health or painful hurts?
Then feel free to connect with me here to arrange an appoinmtment at 'The Gift in You Centre' today.

With love,

Marina

Food For Thought - Articles

2018, 23rd May:

Do You Struggle With Forgiveness?

Forgiveness is not for those you are forgiving. Forgiveness is for you! Author of the book 'The Five Invitations,' Frank Ostaseski writes:

"Resisting forgiveness is like grasping a hot coal and saying, 'I'm not going to let it go until you apologize and pay for what you have done to me.' In our effort to punish, we are the ones who get burned."

When you have been treated unfairly or you feel hurt, having an attitude of forgiveness can be difficult. Yet by withholding forgiveness it somehow seems to keep you in that victim relationship to the person, situation or event, making you continually feel broken down, maybe even powerless and at the mercy of this unjust deed(s).

If you hold onto bitterness or a grudge, or even dare we mention the word "revengeful," you run the risk of becoming a victimiser or maybe even a persecutor by criticism, judgments, justifications, disconnecting and even feeling vindictive toward the other person or situation.

In human relationship, when we feel wronged and unwilling to forgive, it produces an autonomic negative energetic response of 'fight-or-flight' from the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) response. Whether that energy is outwardly expressed or held silently within our own mind and spirit, there is an active and continuous chemical and physical response occurring within the cells of our body.

Most of us in this modern age have been taught about forgiveness, but what does it really mean? And… why then is it so difficult?

Here are a few questions for you to ask yourself to gain insight as to what might be blocking your forgiveness.

When you are having trouble forgiving, do you…..

Feel like the other person needs to be punished?

Feel a confusion between what is 'forgiving' and 'forgetting'?

Feel that if you do forgive, you have lost and are now submitting to their hurtful actions?

Withhold forgiveness in order to feel important or powerful over them - to have that feeling of being "one up"?

Wait for their reconciliation, believing that you will not forgive until the other forgives first?

Forgiveness is not about the above questions. It is about a personal inner change. Instead of living in the past and holding resentments and an unforgiving attitude, you might like to take responsibility for the things in your control in order that you no longer feel like the victim of hurtful or tragic circumstances.

Here are a few places to start…

You might like to reflect upon the questions above and see if there is one that stands out. This may be the clue to what is blocking your forgiveness. Remember to start with small things.

Forgive that slow driver when you are late for work; or co-worker who loves to be the centre of everyone's attention; or the rain when you so desire some sunshine. Developing an attitude toward forgiveness does take practice.

Maybe set a future intention that you will forgive when you feel you are ready. Just setting this future intention to forgive can help thaw some of the energetic negativity.

If you are holding on to the 'hot coal' of unforgiveness and resentment, and stay attached to these thoughts that have you stuck in an unforgiving mind-set, you are definitely harming yourself - so much more than you realise.

2017, 3rd November:

Do we have an 'inner child?'

Does it truly exist?

And why should we even care?

"Destructive behaviour takes on various forms: from subtle self-sabotage and self-defeating patterns, to passive hostility, to severe self-destructive symptoms, violent aggression and, sometimes, evil deeds. Commonly, destructive behaviour in adults bears the impetuous, impulsive quality of childish petulance or narcissistic temper tantrums. Or the infantile neediness, dependency, and dread of abandonment. Or an irresponsibility and angry refusal to be an adult described as the "Peter Pan syndrome."

All this provides the basis for what has come in pop psychology and self-help movements… to be known as the "inner child." What exactly is this so-called inner child? Does it truly exist? And why should we care?

The fact is that the majority of so-called adults are not truly adults at all. We all get older. Anyone, with a little luck, can do that. But, psychologically speaking, this is not adulthood.

True adulthood hinges on acknowledging, accepting, and taking responsibility for loving and parenting one's own inner child. For most adults, this never happens. Instead, their inner child has been denied, neglected, disparaged, abandoned, isolated or rejected. We are told by society to "grow up," putting childish things aside. To become adults, we've been taught that our inner child, representing our child-like capacity for innocence, wonder, awe, joy, sensitivity and playfulness - must be stifled, quarantined or even killed.

The inner child comprises and potentiates these positive qualities. But this capacity also holds our accumulated childhood hurts, traumas, fears and angers. "Grown-ups" are convinced they have successfully outgrown, jettisoned and left this child and its emotional baggage long behind. But this is far from the truth.

In fact, these so-called grown-ups or adults are unwittingly being constantly influenced or covertly controlled by this unconscious behaviour of the inner child. For many, it is not an adult self directing their lives, but rather an emotionally wounded inner child inhabiting their adult body. A five year old running around in a forty year old frame. It is a hurt, angry, fearful little boy or girl calling the shots, making adult decisions. A boy or girl being sent out into the world to do a man's or woman's job. A five or ten-year old (or two of them!) trying to engage in grown-up relationships. One could ask:

Can a child have a mature relationship?

A career?

An independent life?

Yet this is precisely what's happening with us all everyday to some degree or another. And then we wonder why our relationships fall apart. Why we feel so anxious. Afraid. Insecure. Inferior. Small. Lost. Lonely. Unheard.

But think about it: How else would any child feel having to fend for themselves in an apparently adult world? Without proper parental supervision, protection, structure or support?"

This is an excerpt written by Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D. who is a licensed clinical and forensic psychologist who practices in Los Angeles.

2017, 27th October:

Your Brain Loves Exercise.

We have all heard the saying "an apple a day keeps the doctor away," but maybe what could be added to this adage is that "an apple and exercise a day keeps the depression, doctors, and weight issues away!" While I am not suggesting one squat a day will work absolute miracles, what I am suggesting is some exercise during your day will work wonders on your brain health and also your midsection.

Physical activity essentially changes our DNA for the absolute better. The epigenetic pattern of our genes that affects fat storage in the body actually changes with exercise - the more we move, the better our bodies stimulated in using and storing fat. Researchers have found that when we exercise, epigenetic changes occur in 7,000 of the 20,000 to 25,000 genes! Other studies have shown that when we exercise, our body almost immediately experiences genetic activation that increases the production of fat-busting proteins.

Exercise potentially improves all areas of cognitive function, including thinking, learning and memory (and especially with age.) In children, exercise is incredibly important for their memory development. It is the movement that makes us better able to form these memories.

Physical activity increases blood flow to the anterior cingulate cortex (which is a part deep inside the middle of the brain.) Exercise also increases certain good hormones which have been given big names such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1.)

In fact, research shows that people who exercise often improve their memory performance and show greater increase in brain blood flow to the hippocampus, which is the key brain region that deals with converting short term memory into long-term memory. This is particularly important for those affected by Alzheimer's disease.

Exercise can be fun! Below are some tips to help make exercising easier and more exciting:

Workout with friends. Not only does it make working out more fun, but it also gives you an accountability partner.

Try different workout classes. There are so many different ways of working out, from pilates to swimming. Find out what works well for you.

Have a grateful attitude. The mind dominates over everything. So when you exercise, have an attitude of gratitude.

Reward yourself kindly for your exercise accomplishments.

Lighten your load and make chores a workout! Even shopping burns calories!

Find some great music. Music can help motivate you to run that extra distance but can also help distract you while you workout.

The main thing to remember is to stay off your bottom as much as possible and make exercise an important part of your daily routine.

Remember, your brain and your body loves exercise!

2017, 12th October:

Brain Food. Did you know that your brain is in charge. Your brain is acting as your body’s command control tower and this requires proper nutrition.

Like the rest of your body, environment and lifestyle also impact your brain. But there are nutrients that support healthy brain function.

When it comes to fear, the emotion felt is very real... but the 'why' is an established mis-truth.

No psychological fear exists without a negative imagination and programming. Why?

2017, 2nd October:

Fact: Your thoughts and thinking pattern is so powerful that it constantly changes your own genetic expression and it restructures your own brain.

You are the only one who has control over this, and you wield this through your thoughts and choices that you make everyday.

2017, 21st September:

I really desire to have inner peace. What does letting go really mean? How is it possible to just let go?

2017, 12th September:

Have you heard of prayer or meditation? Is there any scientific evidence that these practices might benefit our health and wellbeing?

In ancient times many millennia ago, prayer and meditation were performed daily and common place. Scientists have researched various ancient practices from around the globe and found that there is one key component that all cultures who performed this daily practice had in common was an understanding that our feelings about life's events, and not the events themselves, determine our happiness.

The ancients who daily prayed and meditated gained serenity and peace of mind and thus found by distinguishing what we can control in life from that which we cannot.

Today this philosophy is echoed in the popularised Twelve Step version of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr's prayer:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference."

2017, 11th September:

Have you found a purpose for your life?

Did you realise that a mind-set alone on "beating cancer," can be a process that unknowingly keeps you focused on the issue or trauma that created it?

It can be much more helpful to instead, invest thoughts and energies to re-defining the direction of your life. It is hard to heal with only the desire and intent that you want to "beat cancer" and heal - but the greatest healing occurs when one becomes deeply attached to a much bigger purpose.

Removing issues or trauma without repurposing your life could simply result in a rebound of the same problem, because it has never been addressed in the first place. So I ask again…. Have you found a purpose for your life?

If not.. I would like to assist.

2017, 9th September:

Does someone close to you suffer from a degenerative disease?
Are emotions a factor in disease?

To understand how emotions can become the foundation of degenerative disease like cancer, we need to first understand that the core building block of our body is not matter, but energy. Even matter, after all, is also a form of energy.

Energetic information exchange happens throughout our being across the body-mind-spirit interfaces and is responsible for change - both good and bad.